High-Tech Stress Ball Keeps Procrastination At Bay [Pics]

In the freelance economy today, many workers are out on their own with no supervision and no bosses breathing down their necks. Developing positive work habits can be challenging for even the most motivated. Modeled after the retro stress ball, Bossy has a squishy touch and a small screen, and is designed to help independent workers divvy up and manage their time.

Bossy relies on gamification to keep its users continually engaged. While Bossy is sensitive to the bodily and emotional needs of its owner and presents small ideas for breaks, it also makes a game out of working time to help people establish a goal-oriented mindset. The cycle between cue, action and reward is central to how it works. And because it’s a physical device and not an app, it makes for a better constant companion.

Important for our distraction-saturated world, Bossy also connects to the APIs of various popular apps and social media websites, from Evernote to YouTube. It can then shut down various distracting feeds, such as Facebook messages, at crucial times, and synthesize calendar and reminder information. This, and the physical presence of Bossy, was important to Neumann because he realized that distraction itself can get in the way of spending time on self-care and organization. “When I was doing research, I started installing all of these organization apps in my phone and on my Mac,” he said “But I realized that after time we stop engaging with particular apps because we’re dealing with too much stuff.”

Bossy will need some tweaks before it hits the market. The understated white screen, for example, uses a technology called PDLC that is not yet widely available. However, the forward-looking device, which was developed in response to an RSA design challenge addressing the future of work, was a big hit with freelancers at co-working spaces and elsewhere.